1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for verifying a coloring agent cartridge for a printer, in which it is determined whether or not a replaceable coloring agent cartridge loaded in a printer is genuine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, replaceable ink cartridges or toner cartridges are loaded in a printer. For example, when an ink is completely consumed in a color printer, a corresponding one of the black and color ink cartridges, or a single unit cartridge containing all colors can be replaced.
When this type of coloring agent cartridge is replaced, a non-genuine cartridge may be loaded in the main body of the printer instead of a genuine cartridge. However, conventionally the main body has not had a function for verifying the loaded cartridge.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and device for verifying a coloring agent cartridge for a printer, in which verification can be easily performed even when a loaded non-genuine coloring agent cartridge cannot be distinguished merely by its appearance.
In order to achieve the above described object, the inventors of the present invention have directed their attention to that, the following principle: an amorphous alloy material generates magnetization noise due to the Barkhausen effect, that is, a magnetic pulse, at a predetermined magnetic level, is used to verify a magnetic card and so on.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for verifying a replaceable coloring agent cartridge loaded in a printer comprises providing an amorphous magnetic member on a genuine coloring agent cartridge to be loaded in a main body; providing, in the main body, an exciting coil for exciting the amorphous magnetic member in an AC magnetic field and a detecting coil for detecting the AC magnetic field passing through the amorphous magnetic member; and verifying the coloring agent cartridge based on whether or not a magnetic pulse which is generated at a predetermined level of the AC magnetic field and which is superimposed on a detection signal of the detecting coil is generated at a predetermined phase position in a period of the AC magnetic field.
It is determined that the magnetic pulse is superimposed on the predetermined phase position in the period of the AC detection signal corresponding to the AC magnetic field, when the detecting coil detects the AC magnetic field passing through the amorphous magnetic member attached to or embedded in the genuine coloring agent cartridge. The amorphous magnetic member may be in the form of a piece, line, film, or powder. If the cartridge is non-genuine, the magnetic pulse is not generated. Even if the amorphous magnetic member is attached, the magnetic pulse is not generated at the predetermined phase position in the period of the AC magnetic field, and thus the cartridge is determined to be non-genuine. A non-genuine ink cassette can be easily detected because it is difficult to fabricate the same type of amorphous magnetic members.
By verifying the coloring agent cartridge based on pattern recognition such as the amplitude and pulse width of the magnetic pulse, in addition to whether or not the magnetic pulse is generated at the predetermined phase position in the period of the AC magnetic field, the verification accuracy is further increased.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a device for verifying a replaceable coloring agent cartridge loaded in a printer comprises an amorphous magnetic member provided on the coloring agent cartridge loaded in a main body; an exciting coil for exciting the amorphous magnetic member in an AC magnetic field and a detecting coil for detecting the AC magnetic field passing through the amorphous magnetic member, the coils being provided in the main body; a verifying unit for verifying the coloring agent cartridge based on whether or not a magnetic pulse which is generated at a predetermined level of the AC magnetic field and which is superimposed on a detection signal of the detecting coil is generated at a predetermined phase position in a period of the AC magnetic field; and a print preventing unit for stopping the operation of the printer so that printing cannot be performed when the coloring agent cartridge is determined to be non-genuine. With this configuration, a non-genuine ink cassette can be easily detected and a printing operation is automatically prevented when the non-genuine cartridge is loaded.
In a color printer in which a plurality of replaceable coloring agent cartridges can be loaded, at least the detecting coil is provided for each of the coloring agent cartridges, the detecting coils being arranged in parallel. That is, the exciting coil is provided for all or each of the cartridges, and the detecting coil is provided for the respective cartridges.
In a color printer in which a plurality of replaceable coloring agent cartridges can be loaded in a print head, which moves in the line direction, one exciting coil and one detecting coil are provided along a transport path of the print head so as to scan and verify the plurality of coloring agent cartridges in order when the print head moves in the line direction.
In a color printer in which a plurality of replaceable coloring agent cartridges can be loaded, one exciting coil and one detecting coil are provided so as to move on a rail placed along the alignment direction of the plurality of coloring agent cartridges so as to scan and verify the plurality of coloring agent cartridges in order.
The device further comprises a magnetic pulse extracting unit for extracting the magnetic pulse superimposed on the detection signal of the detecting coil. Also, the verifying unit verifies the coloring agent cartridge based on pattern recognition such as the amplitude and pulse width of the magnetic pulse, in addition to whether or not the extracted magnetic pulse is generated at the predetermined phase position in the period of the AC magnetic field. With this arrangement, the verification accuracy is increased.
The verifying unit verifies the coloring agent cartridge when it is detected that the coloring agent cartridge is loaded in the main body. Accordingly, the verification is automatically performed when the coloring agent cartridge is replaced.